Greetings once more to all! Lets’ continue on the topic of man’s creativity.

Man’s creativity is God’s gift to mankind. God is the origin of all creation and is Creator. In part 1 we saw WHO God is explains WHY and WHAT He creates. He creates because He is Love in His Triune nature and Being. We saw that He is Love. (1 John 4:8) What He creates He does out of His divine unfathomable Love. He is Love because He’s Triune. He cannot be a Tri-Personal Being and not be Love, for Love is inter-personal and relational. To be Triune is to be in Loving relationship.

How do you tell if a person is creative in God’s own image? Jesus answered this question by saying, “By their fruits you shall know them” (Matt.7:20). If you see the context of this verse Jesus was pointing out how to tell the difference between a person who is creative (true) and a person who is non-creative (false). What is productive, and what is unproductive. What is Love, and what is fear. And ultimately we are a facing life or death equation in the end.

Alright, Jesus’ answer dovetails into another question… what are these fruits? Paul documents this in his letter to the Christians in Rome, Corinth, and Galatia. God’s love is the peaceful flow of the Spirit’s life in the Bula man-river: it is *the fruit of patience, *the fruit of kindness, *the fruit of contentedness,  *the fruit of being modest and unboastful, *the fruit of humility, *the fruit of honor, *the fruit of unselfishness, *the fruit of calmness and dignity, *the fruit of forgiveness andcompassion, *the fruit of delighting in good and shunning evil, *the fruit of tolerance, *the fruit of responsibility, *the fruit of enduring hope, *the fruit of steadfast perseverance, *the fruit of joy, *the fruit of peace, *the fruit of goodness, *the fruit of faith, *the fruit of gentleness, *the fruit of self-control, *the fruit of zeal and spiritual fervor, *the fruit of friendship, *the fruit of sharing and generosity, *the fruit of prayerfulness, *the fruit of hospitality, etc. (1 Cor.13; Also Gal. 5:13-26; Rom.12).

 

Dove – Symbol of The Holy Spirit (Wiki Commons)

All these and other traits of the Spirit spells one thing: they spell the actions and emotions of the Spirit in the life of man. By and through them we decipher and peek into the different tones of God’s love. They present to us the way of life of the triune God.

It’s not possible to speak of the Spirit’s creative work in man without the fruits that identify who He is – it’s one and the same, it’s unavoidable. He is Love. Love is identified by fruits. Most times when people think of the fruits of the Spirit, they often view them academically through the legalistic lens of religious proponents as self-improvement tools to make “better people” of us. We live powerless lives when we do. We are not zombies, but free-will humans made in the image of God. These are not self-improvement tools, but rather self-giving and self-sacrificing tools in Herald’s move in our lives.

On the contrary, we fail to realize that from eternity these fruits undergirded the loving relationship of the Three Persons within the Triune God. Love’s energy is brought to life in the application of these fruits. In our constant presence before God, as Bula man-river*, share this energy and the creative relationships we have within the Triune existence of God. Before creation, before the existence of a world in need of being saved, self-giving, self-sacrificing Love, was what marked the fellowship of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Herald). Now you are in their midst living the same life they live from eternity and tasting that life in the Spirit. Many believe in the Trinity but have not experienced the Trinitarian life, let alone know of its power in their lives.

Paul was addressing this very issue of denying the power of the Triune life of God when he drew the attention of young evangelist Timothy, to a list of actions (fruits) that were disempowering people, and from the Herald the Spirit. He mentioned being unloving, unthankful, without self- control, brutal, unforgiving, self-lovers, despisers of good, disobedient, and so on. These and other such actions are fear-based behaviors. Paul said, “They have the form of godliness, but deny its power.” (2 Tim. 3:1-5, KJV) All these behaviors stand up against the list of the Spirit’s fruits we saw earlier, which are Love-based behaviors.

If we take a look at these Love fruits closer we would realize they cultivate and promote positive emotionally-charged activities. They show God has emotions. For example James instructs us to be “slow to become angry.” (Jam.1:19) Herald helps us by empowering us with self-control by controlling our anger. So, self-control is a calming positive emotion which dampens the negative angry emotion. When the Bible says, “Rejoice always” (1Thess.5:16) it’s not referring to our human expression of enjoyment, but a spiritual emotion of joy which the Spirit gives to sustain us even in times of adversity. “The joy of the Lord is your strength.” (Neh.8:10) Joy is not an unmoving static emotion, no, it reveals the divine exuberance of God’s divine emotion. To be in God’s presence is to taste His unbound joy. You can go through each fruit separately and peek into God’s awesome own divine self-giving feelings.

These fruits are the emotional Love expression of God’s Tri-Personal nature and Being. Love is the core expression of creativity. One look at this beautiful earth we call home, and it becomes obvious God created it out of sheer exuberance of joy. Without Love creativity is non-existent. Fear is not creative, it is negative and harmful.

Light Bulb – Symbol of Creativity. Rainbow Colors Depicts God’s Creativity in Man (Wiki Commons)

Why is this important to Jesus and those who choose to follow Him as believers? Because the power and might of God can never ever be manifested in a destructive way because He is Love. (1John 4:8).  It can only be expressed in His Triune Loving pattern of doing things. It is always self-giving and self-sacrificing. And that’s what these fruits demands from us – to be self-giving and self-sacrificing as they are in their relationships with each other.

When Jesus walked this earth, the power of God flowed through the Love fruit of His compassion which healed and produced much good among the people. (Acts 10:38) Through the Holy Spirit we are drawn into their circle of Love, thus, we live the Triune Life. Just as each divine Person in the Trinity is always denying Himself for the sake of the Others and submitting to Others, so do we in the Triune Life, first with God and our fellowman. To be Triune is to be in Loving relationship. We saw that in the last installment. There is no self-love or self-importance within the Triune Godhead. The Tri-Personal God find their unique identities by focusing not on themselves, but on one another. Who they are is how they express themselves to each another. And the Holy Spirit lives this same Loving expression in believers when we also live self-giving lives through the fruits of Love.

We are all unique in our gifting and destiny, and who we are in our gifts becomes a reality only when we express our gifts to others through the fruits of the Spirit. Or, we can be self-centered and use our gifts like an ATM machine and cash-in on our gifts for our own selfish motives, like the unprofitable servant in Jesus parable of the talent. (Luk.19:11-126) When we do that we are burying our unique gifts in our ‘self.’ You’re a non-identity because no one can seen you except you. You have hidden yourself in the ivory tower of your ‘self.’ And not until you allow the Spirit to express your gift in self-giving Love to others through Herald’s divine fruits, only then your unique identity will show through.

Let’s live our unique selves in the creative life in the Spirit.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to write me in the space provided below, or email me on bulamanriver@gmail.com.

Blessing

Until we meet again in my next post, may the blessing of the God who ceaselessly expresses Himself in His dependable Triune Love, be with you today and give you strength for authentic creative Triune Living as a Bula man-river.*

Kiang                                                                                                                                                          (Your Servant in Christ)

 

* The “Bula man-river” is the metaphor describing the union of man with the Love of the Triune God flowing in humans, making possible the “Triune Life” – the source of the miraculous life in man. To read the many facets of life of the Bula man-river, go to my website www.bulamanriver.com where you can order a copy of my Book. Remember, when you purchase my book all the proceeds go towards the Lords’ work of dispensing the Gospel. Thank you for your support.

All scriptures are taken from the NIV Version 2011, unless stated otherwise

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